STS! It's the only long rotation I've ever completed (CLX was close but I bailed one week before the end of the Lean phase--with no regrets, mind you), and so far I've ended up doing two rounds. I had planned to go for my third round around this time, but right now I'm doing a Body Beast rotation so my STS plans are on hold. Hopefully I can get to it around the beginning of next year.
As far as results, the biggest result was increase in not only physical strength but mental strength as well. I remember when I went through my first round (did 1RM testing), and I would go to print out the day's workout card and think to myself on a few of the exercises, "Wow. That's a lot of weight for me!" But 9 times out of 10 I was able to do it, and I only had to tweak a few exercises here and there. By the end of my second round, I was doing squats with about a 115 lb. barbell, deadlifts with a 110-120 lb. barbell, bench pressing over 80 lbs., barbell rowing 97 lbs., and even doing barbell curls with almost a 50 lb. barbell! I noticed a small increase in muscle during each of my two rounds, and my Mom even made (positive) comments on my muscles towards the end of my second round. As a small framed male who has a hard time putting on muscle, I appreciated that very much.
Warriorprincess pretty much took what I was going to say right out of my mouth, so I'm going to add my own additional thoughts:
-Do the 1RM testing, even if it's mostly for the 4 and 5 star exercises in the user guide. For my first round I did 1RM testing for most of the exercises to establish a base, then simply upped it for my second round by 5%. To do this, multiply your 1RM by .85 (round up or down accordingly) then enter 8 reps into the Workout Manager with this calculated weight. The reason I enter .85 for 8 reps is because this is what you use during the final week of Mesocycle 3. Yes, this recalculating is a bit time consuming, but it's worth it as it will save you from second guessing which weight to use. That said, for the Leg workouts in Mesos 1 and 2 (and only such), I do not go by the 1RM. I play those by ear.
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DON'T SKIP MESOCYCLE 1/ENDURANCE! Yes, I agree that the Chest, Shoulders & Biceps workouts are Push-Up Insanity (especially Disc 7
), and the leg workouts have the wall squats from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. But in order for your muscles to be prepared to take the heavier loads to come in Mesos 2 and 3, you will need to build up endurance in the smaller and larger muscles. This is why I personally am not a fan of doing an undulating STS rotation. Yes, I understand some programs have undulating workouts where you will vary the amount of weight and rep used each day or week. But STS is a
linear periodization program (meaning that you will start at a lighter weight--60% of 1RM the first week of Meso 1, peaking at 90% of 1RM during the second-to-last week of Meso 3) and was not designed as an undulating rotation. If you want an undulating rotation, go to Xtrain.
-Try to stick to the rest times given during the workouts. Unlike Cathe's other strength workouts, your rest periods are timed in STS. In Meso 1, pausing should not be an option (or at the very least, be kept to an absolute minimum) since extra rest time defeats the purpose of an endurance cycle. On the other hand, if you feel like the rest periods are too long in Meso 2 and especially Meso 3, you are not lifting heavy enough!
-Don't skip the active recovery weeks. Use these weeks to give your muscles a break from heavy lifting. I do barre, fusion, and lots of yoga during these weeks. This is also a great week to increase your cardio a little bit, or try something new. Speaking of cardio...
-Don't overdo the cardio! Too much cardio gets in the way of recovery and can also inhibit muscle building. I only do one or two cardio days per week while doing an STS rotation. If I do two days, I do one higher intensity cardio day and one lower intensity cardio day.
Sorry if I've been rambling, but I hope this is helpful!